I think, especially when you're in college, each book that you're reading tends to tell you who you are.

Remember that day you said you loved me? Remember that? See, you could do that because you're basically a sane person, who grew up in a loving, sane family. You could take a risk like that. But in my family we didn't go around saying we loved each other. We went around screaming at each other. So what do I do, when you say you love me? I go and undermine it.

and she had succeeded, on the second try, in hurling herself out of the world

On their best days, writers all over the world are winning Pulitzers, all alone in their studios, with no one watching.

No matter how long your've been at it, you always start from scratch.

Everyone struggles against despair, but it always wins in the end. It has to. It's the thing that lets us say goodbye.

Grief is natural,' she said. 'Overcoming it is a matter of choice.